Iraq Aims to Demand Israeli Compensation for 1981 Nuclear Reactor Bombing

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In a surprise airstrike on June 7, 1981, Israeli fighter jets bombed the Iarqi nuclear reactor Tammuz, also known as the Osirak, which was located within Al Tuwaitha Nuclear Center near Baghdad. As a result, the reactor caught fire and was destroyed.

"Sheikh Dr. Hamoudi confirms Iraq's intention to sue Israel for bombing Osirak reactor in 1981 and compel it to pay financial compensation over the attack. He urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations to activate topic internationally," Hamoudi wrote on his official website.

Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein purchased an Osiris-class nuclear reactor from France in 1976, maintaining that it was intended for peaceful scientific research. The Israeli voiced their suspicion that the reactor was designed to make nuclear weapons and believed that it posed an existential threat to Israel.

The air attack conducted by the eight Israeli F-16 fighter jets followed the Israeli intelligence reports suggesting that Osirak would soon become operational and Jerusalem regarded the airstrikes as preventive move.